Rep. Edcel Lagman pointed out that before President Duterte took over presidency, there was no rice shortage and inflation with former president Benigno Aquino III.

The opposition representative said yesterday that the damage of the Duterte administration “could be worse than the combined disasters caused by Ondoy, Yolanda, Ompong and other typhoons and calamities.”

House receives Duterte admin's proposal to create a Dep't of Disaster Resilience. Image credit to UNTV News and Rescue

He lamented damages of the Duterte administration starting with the inflation that has been in news and social media for the past few days.

“When President Duterte took over the presidency in July 2016, inflation was only 1.3 percent. Now it is a crippling 6.4 percent due in no small measure to culpable government neglect and errant policies,” he said.

He said the currency exchange rate was P46.86 to $1, “now it is a whopping P54.01 to $1, or a P7.15 deterioration in two years.”

“The traffic gridlock when Duterte became President cost the country P3 billion daily in lost opportunities. Now, with the worsening traffic mess, the daily loss is equivalent to P3.5 billion or P1.3 trillion per year, which is 34 percent of the P3.757-trillion proposed budget for (next year),” he added.

“In 2016, the (country) had a fairly respectable and independent judiciary but Duterte has destroyed the judicial system when he inveigled the Supreme Court to oust in an improvident and irregular petition for quo warranto chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, whom he publicly urged to be removed for being his enemy,” he said.

Lagman said in 2016, 44 percent of Filipinos see themselves as poor compared to 48 percent this year, "or an expansion to 11.1 million Filipino families meaning 66.6 million people at six individuals for every family."

He said the nation was the recognized pioneer in the Asian locale in human rights security and advancement, "yet has lost that chief status when Duterte crusaded for the rebuilding of capital punishment and disregarded human rights with exemption.

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